Alternatives to Life Cleric

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Hello reader,

I'm at the stage in the game where I'm downloading mods to pump the challenge up to keep the game fresh. Last playthrough was double tactician bonuses and +70% health to all enemies, and it still wasn't enough. Particularly by endgame, enemies were just completely trivial beneath the absurd power of fighters and a Life Cleric with Warding Bond/Sanctuary/Channel Divinity.

What I'm wondering is: Are there any healing classes/techniques that aren't just "Life Cleric but with most of the spells missing"? When looking for sources of healing I've really only found other Cleric variants who just do the same thing but worse.

In World of Warcraft, Druids had their own healing spells that made them operate in different ways to the default Priest class - does Baldur's Gate have anything even remotely similar to that? Or really any non-Cleric healing options whatsoever?

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Try no healing at all.

[Quillithe]

You don't really need a dedicated healer.

Bard/Cleric/Druid get the only heal spell I really mess with regularly, Healing Word - to get people back up at a distance with a bonus action.

[lordmilier]

I have not modded the game and I have never brought a dedicated healer ever try just playing the game with only potions as the means to heal your party and see if that is what you are looking for,

This is not WoW there is no holy trinity in the game strictly speaking so in other words you do not even need someone with a healing spell in their arsenal.

I will be honest I find healing insanely weak in this game the best thing you can do is to bring more damage. Just think about it like as if you are running a low M+ key and your healer dose not even need to heal the tank but well without the tank as well.

As I said no mods here but I have done honour mode run with no healing and no dedicated CC(only CC it had was enraged throw but that was for damage more than the CC) in my party and I still beat the game.

[elderiii]

Off the top of my head, Cleric, Druid, Bard, and Ranger all have healing capabilities. Have you tried using any of the latter 3 as your party healer?

[Mike Garrison]

I almost always have a cleric simply because I almost always bring along Shadowheart for plot reasons. Her main role in my parties is usually healer until she gets her third level spells, and then she's all about those spirit guardians.

[Detective Costeau]

Honestly at least on Balanced or Tactician "person who throws potions at people" is enough to keep the party healed. You really don't need a character specialized at it.

[RoboSauce]

Try Zerd's RAW mod to get rid of some of Larian's house rules that make the game too easy.

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by RoboSauce:

Try Zerd's RAW mod to get rid of some of Larian's house rules that make the game too easy.

What house rules?

[Hobocop]

Ancients Paladin has one of the single strongest healing abilities in the game from their Channel Oath. It's a bonus action, heals the paladin and everyone around them, scales extremely well with further paladin levels which you kinda want anyway because both Aura of Protection and the Ancients aura are both so good, pulses a second time after one turn, and it comes back on a short rest.

And if that isn't enough, there's always Lay on Hands.

All of which is completely separate from using spell slots to heal.

[[TG] zac]

Honestly its as much of a 5e design problem as much as the game itself.

A well coordinated group will just steamroll things unless they are massively over tuned.

And because unlike older editions or pathfinder 2e which have penalties for going down so long as anyone has healing at all you can just get people up time and time again (older editions had negative hit points you had to heal, pathfinder 2e has a stacking debuff that gets very very deadly)

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by TG zac:

And because unlike older editions or pathfinder 2e which have penalties for going down so long as anyone has healing at all you can just get people up time and time again (older editions had negative hit points you had to heal, pathfinder 2e has a stacking debuff that gets very very deadly)

In BG1 and BG2, dead was dead, except for if you were a berserker and fell to zero HP because your rage ended. (That would just be unconscious.) And while a party member could get revived with magic, it only took 10 HP of overkill to get "chunked" and be permanently killed. If the main character died, however, it was instant game over.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

I have not modded the game and I have never brought a dedicated healer ever try just playing the game with only potions as the means to heal your party and see if that is what you are looking for,

This is not WoW there is no holy trinity in the game strictly speaking so in other words you do not even need someone with a healing spell in their arsenal.

I will be honest I find healing insanely weak in this game the best thing you can do is to bring more damage. Just think about it like as if you are running a low M+ key and your healer dose not even need to heal the tank but well without the tank as well.

As I said no mods here but I have done honour mode run with no healing and no dedicated CC(only CC it had was enraged throw but that was for damage more than the CC) in my party and I still beat the game.

Normally I'd agree with you, but I found that once you start putting enemy stats up to stupid levels you start needing sustainability in fights because you're not able to just win every encounter in the first round.

I suppose the thing I find perculiar/interesting about this game is that most tools aren't unique to classes. Healing Word isn't a Cleric ability - it's something pretty much every spellcaster can get access to. This makes 'healers' as an archetype feel homogenous, because they're all doing the same thing (just worse than the Life Cleric because of their channel divinity+passive for double healing).

I think once the devkit becomes available for modders I'll have a go at making something. I do like the concept of a dedicated healer, but Divine Bond needs to go - it's got to be the most impactful spell in the game.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Originally posted by Detective Costeau:

Honestly at least on Balanced or Tactician "person who throws potions at people" is enough to keep the party healed. You really don't need a character specialized at it.

This is an absolutely hilarious idea. A fighter who uses the Extra Extra Attack perk to allow them to throw three potions per turn.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Ancients Paladin has one of the single strongest healing abilities in the game from their Channel Oath. It's a bonus action, heals the paladin and everyone around them, scales extremely well with further paladin levels which you kinda want anyway because both Aura of Protection and the Ancients aura are both so good, pulses a second time after one turn, and it comes back on a short rest.

And if that isn't enough, there's always Lay on Hands.

All of which is completely separate from using spell slots to heal.

I had forgotten about Oath of Ancients - that's an amazing idea! Thank you!

[FunkyMonkey]

Originally posted by Super Cosmic Space Magnet:

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Ancients Paladin has one of the single strongest healing abilities in the game from their Channel Oath. It's a bonus action, heals the paladin and everyone around them, scales extremely well with further paladin levels which you kinda want anyway because both Aura of Protection and the Ancients aura are both so good, pulses a second time after one turn, and it comes back on a short rest.

And if that isn't enough, there's always Lay on Hands.

All of which is completely separate from using spell slots to heal.

I had forgotten about Oath of Ancients - that's an amazing idea! Thank you!

Also, all Paladins have Lay on hands, if you want even more healing too. And it gives more of a choice if you want to use it in combat. Do I heal with my Paladin or go and smack someone six ways to sunday? Could add some variety if you want to play with "healers".

Edit: Oops, didn't see that Lay on hands was already mentioned.